Reality: We still have people coming in wanting to sign up for Summer Reading Club!
Even though our last day is Saturday, if people make the effort to come into the library and ask me about the Summer Reading Club, I try to be as accommodating as possible. We'll draw our grand prize winners on Monday morning before we open, but if people bring logs in after the club is "over", we will certainly give them prizes while supplies last. One big thing for us is that some of the schools reward kids who finish the Summer Reading Club, so for some kids getting on "The List" is more important than the actual prizes.
We had our last big program of the summer on Wednesday - Life Sized Candy Land. We did this program for Spring Break in 2010 and since we had all the props made, we brought it back. This was our biggest program of the summer (even counting the Zoo!). We had over twice as many kids come through this time.
We partnered with the YMCA Summer Camps and had the Teen Camp kids come early and set up the game board for us. Then they stayed and helped out as we had the YMCA preschool summer camp and another summer day camp bring kids to go through the game. After the groups had gone through and the teens were gone, we opened up the game to the public. We offered free prize books to the tween volunteers (culled from book donations throughout the year). It all went pretty smoothly, but it was definitely a lot of work and I'm glad it's over!
I know some libraries are still going strong with the Summer Reading Club, but our kids will soon be going back to school. Some of our private schools start back on Monday and our public schools start back on August 15. Give me a couple of months and I'll be ready to start thinking about next year. (I lied - I have already been thinking about next year.) And give me a week or so and I'll be ready with coherent thoughts about Summer Reading 2011.
If you've posted about your Summer Reading Club this week, leave a link in the comments and I'll round 'em up.
And here's my own completed Summer Reading log:
To everyone who's done with Summer Reading, congratulations! We made it! To everyone who's still going, good luck and keep up the good work!